Sometimes a certain space defines your identity and you don’t know it until that space is
taken away from you. Indrani directed Bengali film Chhaad tells you about a school teacher,
a dormant artist Mitra/ Paoli Dam, who loves to spend her evenings on her building terrace. It
is here she befriends her niece and a few kids who come up to fly kites. She attends school in
the morning post her daily chores as a daughter-in-law of a joint family, Mitra looks forward
to watering the plants on the terrace of their dilapidated building.
It is a drab life divided between attending to her self-centred husband and an egoistic mother-
in-law. The only time she feels vibrant is when she is on the terrace, watching the changing
skyline. One day, she is asked to write a story for a festival issue but she is unable to focus on
her creative process trapped in her claustrophobic room. She yearns to visit her terrace but
cannot because that area and the ascending stairway is locked up because of family politics.
Then suddenly, the extended in-laws shifted to Asansolvisit Kolkata and Mitra without
consulting the family seeks permission to use the locked terrace and the family agrees.
Mitra’s husband is angry because she has overstepped and her and her mother-in-law
offended by her audacity but Mitra is uncaring. She has to follow her heart, find inner peace
and only the terrace can grant her that. Mitra is able to honour her deadline and is appreciated
for her writing.
Chhaad is a story of most women struggling to break free. Paoli Dam as Mitra is outstanding
and director Indrani sensitive to her surroundings to another level. Only a woman could have
made this film.